Two new high-end holiday homes on the quayside in Clifden, Co Galway, are for sale off-plans – the last two of a small five-house development due to be completed in September.
The three-storey, three/four-bed homes overlooking Clifden Bay don’t come cheap – they’re each €495,000 – but two of the five have already been bought for this price, says the developer. A Dubliner in the property business, he is retaining one of the five as his own holiday home.
He and his wife took their first away trip together 35 years ago to Clifden, he says. They stayed in the Alcock & Brown Hotel in the town, and have been going “all our lives to Clifden and Roundstone”. In 2015, he bought a cottage on the quayside that had been empty for 10 years. Many years before, it had apparently been the home of Mrs Gallagher, a national schoolteacher who was well-known locally. He sought and received planning permission to knock the cottage and build five new homes on the third of an acre site.
Now numbers 2 and 3 Clifden Quay – a mid-terrace and an end-terrace house, both 188sq m (2,020sq ft) – are each for sale off plans through local agent Matt O'Sullivan.
Choice
Designed by Galway architect Aidan Browne, the properties are three storeys high – they will have garages on the ground floor and en suite bedrooms on the top floor. Owners can choose to configure this floor as three or four bedrooms. The main bedrooms open on to large balconies overlooking the harbour. The middle floor will be open-plan, “with a floor plate over 700sq ft”.
This room will run from the front to the back of the building. At the front, the large living area overlooks the harbour through floor-to-ceiling windows opening through sliding doors onto a balcony. The diningroom/kitchens to the rear of the open-plan space open on to an enclosed and elevated patio with stepped planting areas. Underneath this is a good-sized storage area.
The houses come with underfloor heating, triple-glazed windows and built to modern energy efficiency regulations, should be comfortable to live in year round. There will be wifi and a satellite dish on the site.
Local Clifden builder Martin Acton is building the houses. Work began in December 2016 and its expected that all five houses will be completed by August/September.
Clifden’s quayside is on the edge of the town that’s dubbed the capital of Connemara. It’s about 18km from Roundstone and 9km from Ballyconneely.
